After the three different movies, I have decided that my favorite version was the one by Franco Zefferelli. I really enjoyed the way Franco decided to start the film. Showing the audience Hamlet Senior's burial as the first scene was a clever way to implant the mood and conflict of the story. Also, I liked that Franco almost immediately switched from the burial to Claudius giving Hamlet a "fatherly" talk. Then, he had almost no transitioning into the wedding and celebrations. By barely giving the audience time to comprehend the situations, Zefferelli successfully shines light upon the swiftness of the death of Hamlet's father to Gertrude's remarriage.
Zefferelli displays an excellent skill of creating dramatic lighting. He positions Claudius and Gertrude behind shadows, and introduces Hamlet by emerging him from the shadows into a brilliant light. The lighting is a marvelous mood creator in addition to the dark scenery and depressing atmosphere. Lastly, what made me really prefer Zefferelli's version of Hamlet was the fact that it is done in a twelfth century setting. The language fits into the era, while Almereyda's Hamlet, in my own opinion, seemed kind of ludicrous, as the twenty-first century setting does not quite complement the Shakespearean language. Zefferelli's film was my favorite, I really enjoyed watching Hamlet through Franco's perception.
Althought this version of Hamlet was very good, I do not believe it was the best out of the three. First, this version starts off at a random point in the play. It doest not capture every detail of the story. I believe detail is very important when it comes to understanding Shakespeare and this version does not accomplish this task entirely. I also did not enjoy Zeffirelli's version of Hamlet's soliloquy. I felt that Hamlet could have expressed more emotion in his soliloquy than just putting emphasis on a few words. Even though at some points during Branagh's outtake on Hamlet's soliloquy was somewhat dramatic, it captured the essence of what actors who performed at the Globe Theater had to do. Franco's version was good, but I do not think it was as good as Ken's version.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kim's comment that the start of the play is what threw me off. I didn't like how abrupt the transition was. I felt the director should have added some reasoning behind the two scenes, for those who have not read Hamlet. I thought that the lighting was too dramatic and caused the film to be too much of a copy, rather than an interpretation. Although I did appreciate the language used in the film, I did not feel it was up to par with Branagh's interpretation.
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